Philippines is a country that is rich in
some of the most dynamic, intense, and effective forms of health treatments that
have been practiced for many centuries. Psychic surgery, however, has
gained more attention more than any other healing practices in the
country.

Psychic surgery is a specialized healing
modality performed by faith healers using bare hands
to extract a tumor, body tissue, a blood clot, or any unwanted obstruction from inside the
body. This is done while the patient is conscious and is considered to be
painless even without the use of anesthesia. It usually leaves
no scar but sometimes may cause minimal scarring.

Another form of psychic surgery uses
cutting instrument to penetrate into the skin. This is performed in
South America but not in the Philippines where bare hand operation is more
common.

Psychic surgery is a direct application
of the major phenomenon of mediumship wherein the healer acts as a medium, or a
channel, for spiritual and magnetic energies to flow through himself and into
the patient. The healer manipulates magnetic energy to be able to
penetrate the body, both the spiritual and physical body.

Psychic
surgeons are under constant scrutiny because people often could not believe
their own eyes when observing such phenomena. Psychic surgery clearly
defies the laws of medical science as they are currently understood.
Despite the negative publicity and criticisms about this practice, many patients
continue to report remarkable recoveries at the hands of the psychic surgeons in
the Philippines.

Mr.Licauco, a Filipino paranormal researcher has written several books about psychic surgery. According to him, the first psychic surgeon to
emerge is a healer named Eleuterio Terte from the Union of Espiritistas (a
spiritist organization), in the late 1940's. As the story is told, while Terte was performing
magnetic healing on a patient, suddenly his patient's body started opening up.
Allegedly, he was able to remove gallstones and infected tissue with only his bare hands.
From that time on, he has continued this work known today as psychic surgery.
According to Terte's son, Terte started out as a magnetic healer in 1925, after two angelic children appeared when he was seriously ill. From then on, he accepted
the gift of healing.

Based on my research, Terte is the first recorded psychic surgeon but not
necessarily the first one in the Philippines. There were others who have been practicing
psychic surgery long before Terte existed. However, the technique wherein the surgery was done was
slightly different as compared to Terte's style.

Another ancient form of psychic
surgery is the bloodless operation wherein the healer could remove certain body
tissue or blood clot from the patient's body without blood. Some consider
this as plain materialization but nevertheless, whether materialization or not,
this is still a psychic surgery. Surgery that involves drawing of
blood is still what made psychic surgery very popular.

Type of Psychic Surgery

Description

Bloody

no pain; used to remove a blood clot, body
tissue, or toxic elements in the body; with instrument or with bare
hands; no anesthesia

Bloodless

no pain;used to remove blood clot,tissue or
toxic elements in the body, no anesthesia. Favored by those who are
nervous or afraid. Same effect as bloody operation. Also called
SPIRITUAL OPERATION.

With Bare hands

Can be bloody or bloodless operation. No
instrument is used to cut the skin; Painless.

With instrumentation

with the use of blade or knife to cut open
the skin to perform either bloody or bloodless operation; painless

"LAHID
& TANDOK"- primitive forms of psychic surgery

Lahid
healing technique removes or extracts foreign bodies or particles embedded in the
flesh or bloodstream allegedly caused by black magic, spells or the machinations
of evil forces.Also according to occult tradition, it is a counter-power strength
mechanism which dissolves or dismantles evil works that inflict diseases on
victims.Using a white linen pouch containing ground herbs is massaged on
the affected area of the patientís body for several minutes, ranging from 20
to 40 minutes. Items extracted from the body are usually solid objects such as
bones of fish, broken glass, stones or insects.Lahid is still practiced today in some
remote provinces in the Philippines.

Tandock
or Tandok is a healing technique practiced in the Southern part of the
Philippines, in the island of Mino in Mindanao. It involves cutting an
incision on the patient's affected area, then a type of scope is attached where
blood is supposed to drain out.

Psychic
surgery, as we know it today, involves cutting the skin and extracting objects
and/or draws out blood from the patient. It has evolved from the more
primitive psychic surgical techniques: the Lahid and Tandok.

Who
are the Espiritistas?

Espiritista
is a term of Spanish-Filipino origin. It refers to persons who have the ability
to channel the spiritual energy of, or be possessed by, the Holy Spirit for
positive healing goals.

Almost all of healers who can perform
psychic surgery are Espiritistas but not all Espiritistas are psychic
surgeons. Every Espiritista has a destiny. Some of them become
magnetic healers (similar to pranic healers); others become expert on exorcising
evil spirits on possessed persons and they may also drive away bad spirits or
negative energy from a house or a building. Others become prophets and
some turn out to become evangelists and priests. Nevertheless, only few of
them are gifted by the Holy Spirit to become psychic surgeons.

Early known psychic surgeons belong the organization called the Union of Espiritistas of the Philippines whose
purpose is to train gifted healers and to gather its congregation in rituals of
union with the Holy Spirit. However, many psychic surgeons have mushroomed
from different spiritual organizations alike. Even foreigners who are not
Espiritistas have eventually become psychic surgeons after involvement in many
spiritual sessions.

Magnetic
Healing- a very effective Philippine healing technique

Magnetic healing is a method by which an
individual of reputed high spiritual sensibilities may be able to consciously
induce trance states to skillfully manipulate the subtle vital force of electro
vital force of electromagnetism. The technique requires both the power of
concentration of the healer in his own union with this energy and the ability to
focus it on another person, in order to make substantial changes on the physical
plane.

Magnetic healing obtains same effect as
psychic surgery but runs through a different process. Magnetic energy
melts the condition. If there is cancer, magnetic healing will melt this.
Effective psychic surgery cannot be done without the use of magnetic
energy. But magnetic healing can be done even without doing psychic
surgery on the patient. That is the difference. A bloodless psychic
operation uses more magnetic energy and therefore is practiced only by the
advanced and more experience healers.

Compensation
for the Practitioners

Practitioners are compensated through
reasonable donations from their patients especially if they are less
fortunate. For regular patients who come to Philippines or invite healers
for healing, the healer may specify the amount depending on the patient's
condition. Most healers, aside from the compensation or donation
they get, also receive special gifts or tokens of appreciation from the
patients. Some healers I know have received expensive watches and
jewelries, international travel package, chocolates, perfumes and special
souvenirs from the thankful patients who have already recovered from their
illnesses.

The Psychic
Surgery Controversy

Many websites have been created to
discredit psychic surgery. Certain names of healers have been dragged to
trickery issues that caused some of them to face legal actions filed against
them by complainants. It must be understood that complainants are not
necessarily the patients of these healers. It is interesting to note that
those who filed the complaints are fellow healers, healing organizers or
managers, interpreters and some media.

It is so obvious why fellow healers will
do this: because they want the market for themselves. One that
appeared on TV that demonstrated fake surgery is in fact a healer himself who
tricked everyone to believe that he is the only legitimate healer around.
This, in my opinion, is very unfair, unjust, inhuman, and very wrong!
A good healer must devote himself in the concentration of his profession to
improve his knowledge and skills.

Healing organizers who have
complained are actually businessmen who invited healers to their country,
made agreement with the healers and promise to give them a portion of whatever
can be collected. An old psychic surgeon I know has been a victim of
Japanese group who invited him to Japan. There was disagreement in the
division of collection because the Japanese wanted more. At the end of the
healing mission, the Japanese complained to authorities about the healer as
being fake. Therefore, the healer, not knowing what to do was forced to
leave the country without any money in his pocket. This is a trick done by
organizers who invite different healers but with negative intentions of
fattening up their pockets and victimizing the healer in the end.

Another healer I know, a nephew of a very
famous psychic surgeon in the 70's, was also victimized by Russian organizers
who promise to compensate the healer for a one month healing
mission. The healer received a certain portion of the money from the
organizer but just before he left the airport, the healer noticed something
different in the behavior of the organizer. The instincts of the
healer was right because just as he was about to leave Russia, some supposedly
police authorities searched into the healer's belongings and confiscated the
money earned from the one-month work. Police was said to be kind enough and left
a few hundreds for food and taxi for transportation. This is just
one of the cases of complaints in Russia.

Another one involved a very famous healer
who is in low profile nowadays due to the scandal. It involved certain
police authorities who noticed influx of patients to a clinic in Moscow.
The police demanded $1000 from the healer, which is very common in Russia by the
way. As expected the healer refused to give $1000 which prompted the
police to threaten the healer. This resulted to a very major disagreement
and bitter feelings. It did not take long before this police several other
officers to visit the clinic and took him to jail. This has been a
sensational news worldwide and destroyed not only the healer's reputation but
also the other healers as well. The healer was set up by the police, using
another officials colleague to act as patient. After several months in
jail, the healer finally agreed to give them what the police wanted but this
time, it's much bigger amount due to the number of high officials who wanted
money. The healer who is also a successful businessman in the Philippines,
sold his multi-million dollar property to finally clear his name and pay the
corrupt police. In fact, this healer was supported in Russia by the
patients themselves whom he has helped. The corrupt officials
obviously did not care about the people the healer can help. They
just cared about how much money they can get from the healers.

Some media abroad and also in the
Philippines also do this set up scheme when they can't get any money from the
healers. Pity on the healers, they are the victims of the corrupt.
Some media tie up with magicians who would demonstrate how surgery is done
but of course using trickery since they are not real healers. They expose
something that is not done by the healers and yet blame the healers for
something they are NOT guilty about.

Not all healers who claim to be psychic
surgeons are in fact psychic surgeons. Some only pretend to be. A
real psychic surgeon must receive the gift of healing; it is not a skill that is
learned in training centers but rather passed down to the healer by the Holy
Spirit. Healers who lack psychic abilities and spiritual
enlightenment eventually resort to trickery. Indeed, they can fool some
patients but eventually they are caught. These bad healers however do not
represent the Psychic Healing in the Philippines in general. They are just
a few of those we call opportunists. That should NOT be enough
reason for people to decide that all psychic surgeons are fake. Some
are fake indeed that's why you have to be cautious in choosing your
healer. It is not easy to become a psychic surgeon, believe me. For
those who want to become healers and are becoming impatient in receiving the
gift, please don't resort to trickery.